Lopes's victory came in Los Angeles in 1984 and Brendan Foster believes Radcliffe can follow his path. She will be 38 in four years' time, having returned in style this weekend in only her fourth race in three years after injury and the birth of her daughter Isla.

Foster was third as Lopes finished second in the 10,000m at the Olympics in Montreal in 1976. He said: "When Carlos won in LA eight years later, he had been injured in between. He had an Achilles problem in the late 1970s and early 1980s and he did not race. He told me that it left him with a world of energy when he did return.

"That is how Paula will be. She has always had a great deal of mental energy and as she has raced so little since 2005, she has not used that. Before Sunday, it was interesting how she said she was ignoring the opposition, and looking forward to running fast and to 2012.

"As she has had these three years of diminished race activity, she has the appetite for running more races. She looks unstoppable once more and I don't think anyone will cope with her in New York."

David Bedford, the race director of the London Marathon, believes the sport will know more after Sunday when Radcliffe faces opposition from Ethiopian Gete Wami and Catherine Ndereba, of Kenya. "If you are a runner that is in shape, maybe it will be best to take it out early and put Paula under some pressure from the start," he said. "Whether anyone is in shape to do that, I do not know.

"She was looking as though she was coming back well in New York last year and then injuries devastated everything since then. Hopefully this [Portsmouth] is a springboard to move her back to the kind of athlete that we have known over the years."